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COMMANDERY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 


WAR PAPER 59. 



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Military Order of tye bo^al be^ion 



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Onifed §fates. 



[JOMMAWDERV OF THE DIgTJyCT OF COLUMBIA, 



WAR PAPERS . 

59 

Scouting in Tennessee 

PREPARED BY COMPANION 

Major 

HENRY RCMEYN, 

U. S. Army, 

AND 

tEAD AT THE STATED MEETING OP NOVEMBER 1, 19C5. 






TMP96-007594 



grouting in Mtmtmt 



During the winter of 1862-3, and spring of the latter year, 
Ward's Brigade, as it was then known — composed of the 70th 
Indiana, 79th Ohio, io2d, 105th and 129th Illinois Volunteer 
Infantry — was encamped along the line of the Louisville 
and Nashville railroad with headquarters at Gallatin, Sumner 
county, twenty-eight miles north of Nashville. General 
E. A. Paine of Illinois, commanding the district of country 
lying along the south line of Kentucky, from the point where 
the Cumberland river leaves that State to where it again 
enters it, also had his headquarters at that place. General 
Crook, with a division, was at Carthage, farther up the Cumber- 
land, and such of his supplies as were not obtainable in his 
vicinity were forwarded to him from Gallatin, the river being 
a very uncertain route, owing to liability of trouble from guer- 
rillas, as well as from raiding parties from the organized forces 
of rebels at McMinnville and its vicinity. Two companies 
(Johnson's and Lawson's) of the nth Kentucky Cavalry, 
were also at Gallatin, the only troops of that arm with the 
brigade. 

The country swarmed with guerrillas; smugglers and under- 
ground mail carriers had regular routes across it ; and score* — 
hundreds — of rebel soldiers, shunning further service, or steal- 
ing 'home to steal remounts when they arrived there, sought 
shelter in the hills of eastern Sumner and Macon counties, 
and raided the railroad at every opportunity. 

The available mounted force was ridiculously small for 
the duty required, and, as a temporary reinforcement, General 



Paine ordered a detail of one picked man from each company 
of the brigade for mounted duty, this number being later 
more than doubled, after it had demonstrated its effectiveness. 
Regimental commanders were directed to select a non-com- 
missioned officer for taking charge of their details, and mounts, 
such as could be had from the cullings of cavalry organizations, 
were issued to them. 

I had just returned from a forty days' sick furlough at the 
north, and was on the way to report to my company com- 
mander, when I was halted by the adjutant and told that 
the colonel wished to see me. On reporting, I was informed 
of the detail and asked if I would like to have charge of it. 
Would H There was no time asked for deliberation — except 
to state what the colonel already knew, that I was not even 
a corporal — but he settled that by saying, "The General need 
not know that; go and report!" and, an hour later, I was in 
the quartermaster's corral in town selecting horses. 

We soon found that our details were not sinecures. Guard- 
ing forage trains, hunting bushwackers, smugglers, etc., 
kept us busy, day and night ; and once for thirty-eight con- 
secutive davs the little band was in the saddle. Many of 
the horses became utterly exhausted, and men were only 
kept up by pure grit, which would not give up, while they 
could stand, or sit in the saddle. We were impressing horses, 
"wherever found, but at first the quartermaster refused to 
accept our worn-out animals, the matter being finally settled 
by a remark of the General, when informed of the condition 
of our stock, to the effect that I was "a - - fool if I couldn't 
keep my men well mounted, when I was getting fresh horses 
every day." 

Then the quartermaster refused to receive any branded 
stock. But one of the scouts was a blacksmith, and managed 



to secure an impression of the Q. M.'s branding iron, made 
a duplicate at the regimental forge, and every captured horse 
was branded as soon as brought in; it was "branded horses 
or none'' and we were soon riding horses that were second 
to none in Tennessee. How they were obtained will be told 
as the narrative proceeds. 

I shall not attempt to give events in strict chronological 
order, as this can scarcely be classed as an historical paper, 
but narrate them as they come up in memory — it being im- 
material whether a prisoner was captured, or a horse impressed, 
or train load of forage seized on the first or last day of any 
given week or month — possession being the main thing to 
be considered, chronology or sequence is of no value. 

Owing to its constant activity, the little command seemed 
ubiquitous. Raiding a smuggler's depot on the Kentucky 
line one day, the succeeding one might find it on a foraging 
expedition in the opposite direction; with everything quiet 
in camp at taps, daylight of the ensuing day disclosed it making 
reprisals for captures of Union men, twenty miles away in 
the hills of Macon county, only to be back with its captives 
by sunset of the same day. Owing to the difficulty of rousing 
men sleeping in different tents, permission was obtained to 
take possession of a house and stables not far from camp, 
and the small body was gathered there and assumed a quasi 
separate existence, its commander reporting directly to the 
District Headquarters, and receiving orders from that source 
only. 

Our duties had scarcely commenced when I was approached 
by the chaplain of the regiment, who stated that the adjutant 
had informed him that we were getting horses for army use 
from the surrounding country, and as one was a necessity 
if his duties were to be properly performed, he wished I would 



obtain one for him. Not long after, in a raid over the Kentucky 
line, two rebel soldiers were captured at a farmhouse, and 
as one was wearing spurs, search was made for horses, and 
among a dozen or so found in a wood some distance from the 
house, was a beautiful piebald pony. "Here's the horse for 
the chaplain!" shouted the corporal as he herded the animals 
into the stable yard, and the pony was confiscated and taken 
to camp. The reverend seemed very much pleased with 
my "purchase" which he at once took charge of. But on 
our return from another expedition, a few days later, he met 
me with a very long, solemn face, and about the following 
conversation took place: 

"Did you pay for the pony I have?" 

"Not a bit of it, Chaplain. I gave a receipt, payable on 
proof of loyalty, as is done for everything we take from cit- 
izens." 

"But the adjutant tells me that you seize stock wherever 
you find it, regardless of owner's rights or protest." 

"That is true, except when the owner is well known to 
be a Union man; then we are very Careful not to disturb 
him." 

Desire of possession, and regard for what he considered 
right and honest, provoked dissension in the mind of the good 
man, but he finally made vicarious settlement by acting on 
a suggestion to turn the animal over to the quartermaster 
to be appraised, purchase her at the price fixed, and let the 
Government bear the sin; and the pony made the march to 
the sea, held a place in the grand review, and ended her days 
in peace and quiet in an Illinois town. 

General Paine wasted no love on our erring brethren. 
Neither did he use any ambiguous language in describing 



their offence, and his adjectives were pungent as well as terse, 
and not those commonly used in describing the future state 
of the good. He believed in proselyting, peaceably if practi- 
cable; if not, then his ideas were somewhat on the order 
of those of Mahomet — they smacked of force. His wit was 
very caustic. A man named Kirk, who claimed to be a major 
in the rebel army, but who was only a very active and per- 
nicious guerrilla, had been captured by some of the scouts, 
and to insure safe keeping, confined separately from other 
prisoners in a jail cell. By working upon the sympathies 
of the officer in charge, he procured an interview with the 
general, and asked to be paroled. 

"Paroled? No! Why, I would as soon parole the devil 
if I had him under lock and key." 

"But, General, I shall die if I am kept locked up." 

"Die— if you wish to. I'll go to your funeral and make 
it respectable." 

Occasionally he would, on Sundays, with an escort of scouts, 
ride out to one of the country churches, or the house of some 
prominent citizen, and, as he said, "preach the gospel of 
loyalty to such as could be gathered to hear him." 

vSoon after one such meeting, a man who had been bitter 
and blatant in his speech against the Government, was arrested 
for harboring those in arms against it; the case was proved, 
and he was given his choice: take the oath of allegiance, 
with bonds for his fidelity, or go to prison. At first he was 
very stubborn and chose the prison, but one night's reflection 
affected a change, and he asked for another interview, and 
it being granted, expressed — but rather truculently — his 
willingness to take the oath. But it was the general's turn 
to demur, and he was refused the privilege. 



8 



"But, General, you go out to the country, and preach repent - 
ance to the people, and you know the old hymn says that 

'' While the lamp-holds out to burn 
The vilest sinner may return.'" 

• • Yes, I know it does, but your lamp is out ; I put it out 
yesterday;" — and the refractory individual was sent north 
for confinement. 

On another occasion, when the scouts had captured three 
furloughed rebels at a farm some ten or twelve miles from 
town, several fine turkeys, evidently tired of farm life, came 
into camp — riding very quietly in the blankets of the men 
behind their saddles. Next, morning, when the general 
entered his room at headquarters, he was confronted by an 
irate female, who demanded payment for her turkeys. At 
first he was disposed to be patient, listening to her tale of woe ; 
but when she became abusive toward the soldiers he broke 
out: — "Madam, if you had to live as my soldiers do, you 
would consider every turkey a godsend, and take it. We 
came down here to put down this rebellion which your friends 

got up, and we are going to do it, if it takes every turkey 

in Tennessee. Good morning! Orderly! Show this lady 
out!" 

Three civilians — two of them natives of the state, the third 
a Kentuckian — were employed as secret service men, and 
frequently marked down the game for the scouts to capture. 
The Kentuckian dealt principally with smugglers and mail 
carriers ; one of the others personated a rebel, going to or 
from home on furlough; and the third recruited for the rebel 
cause, and gathered 'information from all possible resources. 
All of them came to grief, two being killed, and the third was 
so badly wounded that he had to be sent north. Men living 



in the country — some of them a score or more of miles away — 
were hired to bring information, and some of these got into 
trouble. 

One night in February, just after midnight, I was aroused 
by the stable guard, who said a woman wished to see me. 
Turning out as quickly as possible, I met the wife of one of 
the men who was thus employed. A party of guerrillas had 
surprised him at his home and carried him off. Fleeing into 
the darkness, the wife had remained near enough to the scene 
to learn what disposition was to be made of him, and then, 
catching his horse, had ridden with all speed about twelve 
miles for help. At the picket line, on telling her story, a 
soldier was sent to show her the quarters of the scouts. 

If the man's life were to be saved, there was no time to 
waste; and assuming the responsibility, the party was ordered 
out, the woman furnished a fresh horse, and by sunrise some 
half dozen of the man's rebel neighbors were in our hands 
as hostages for his return, which took place the next day. 
But his usefulness was at an end, and he, too, was sent to 
central Illinois for safety. 

"You had better hurry; the air is blue over there," was 
the comment of an orderly who, with a message from the Gen- 
eral, called me from my breakfast one morning in March. 
But a moment was required for saddling my horse, and in 
another I was racing across the fields toward the house occupied 
by the Commander as private quarters. In front of it stood 
a horse, mud-stained and tired, bearing a side-saddle. On 
entering the house I found the statement regarding atmos- 
pheric conditions was correct. Beside the open fire sat a 
young lady, whose drawn and pale face and muddy riding 
skirt showed excitement and long and rapid riding; while 
the General, pacing the floor, gave vent to language not of 



IO 



a Sabbath school character, but very explosive — with adjec- 
tives better expressed by blanks and dashes than by words. 
My introduction was of a kind suitable to the occasion: 

"Sergeant, this is Miss Fraser, daughter of Dr. Fraser of 

Wilson county. The rebels arrested him last night, 

and say they are going to send him to Bragg for trial, for 
furnishing information to the Federal authorities. Here 
is a list of six doctors living between this place and Hartsville, 
or there. Arrest them, and bring them here, to be held as 
hostages for him. Tell them why it is done, and that his 
fate will be theirs. Make haste, and report at once on your 
return." 

Hartsville was eighteen miles distant, but by noon the six 
individuals named were gathered at the corners of its principal 
streets, and the reason for their arrest explained. Half an 
hour later an horseman, bearing a note stating the case, was 
en route to McMinnville, whither Dr. Fraser had been taken, 
and by sunset I reported that these hostages had been placed 
in charge of the provost marshal. Three or four days later, 
the Union man presented himself at headquarters, and they 
were allowed to return to their homes. 

At Cairo, a hamlet of eight or ten dwellings, about six miles 
above Gallatin on the bank of the Cumberland, the Union 
forces had taken possession of a sawmill, and were running 
it, to supply lumber for use at Gallatin. The place was a 
modern Sodom, and save the mother of the Ohio man in charge 
of the mill, I do not believe there was a decent woman in it. 
A fellow named Pollard, whose mother lived there, had de- 
serted from the rebel army and had taken to bushwacking, 
and a special object of his malignity was the man in charge 
of the mill. One morning that individual presented himself 
at headquarters, and said that if Pollard was not captured 



II 



he must abandon the mill, for he was fired on daily from 
the opposite bank of the river, and that his enemy was 
being harbored in the place. I was ordered to get him, and 
taking about a dozen men was soon on the way to the place, 
which, lying at the foot of a steep hill, could be closely ap- 
proached without discovery. Back of the crest the men were 
dismounted, and, screened by bushes along a fence, the search 
was planned, each man being assigned his place and duty, 
and remounting, the rush was made. With three men I 
broke into what had been a grocery, and in an inner room 
found three men seated at a card table, while on the floor 
lay a hand of cards, dropped when the holder ran for shelter; 
but a search from floor to floor failed to disclose his hiding 
place. In a corner of an upper room, a pile of dried beef 
hides, below an open scuttle to a dark attic, was climbed upon ; 
a box, added, made a platform from which the hole could 
be reached, and, candle in one hand, pistol in the other, the 
dismal space was searched; but in vain. Some days later 
Captain Lawson raided the town at night, capturing Pollard, 
who said that like a hunted rat he had lain curled up under 
the hides over which I had climbed in search of him. 

Failing to find the object of our hunt, a thorough search 
of every house was ordered, mounted men being stationed 
at vantage points, to prevent communication from house to 
house, or escape from the place. At the home of his mother, 
a drunken virago, armed with a club, disputed the entrance; 
but was outwitted by a party entering the rear door. When 
one of the party drew from the bed an Enfield rifle and a suit 
of rebel uniform, she aimed a blow at his head which, had 
it not been intercepted, would have made impossible the pre- 
paring of this paper, and have caused a vacancy among the 
sergeants of G. Co., 105th Illinois Infantry. 



12 



The uniform fitted a Frenchman of the scouts, and worn 
by him procured for us several good dinners, the wearer being 
for the time a soldier of some Louisiana regiment, escaped 
from a train carrying prisoners north ; only to be recaptured 
by us about the time his meal was ready. 

During the retreat of the Union forces from the State in 
the summer of 1862, some soldiers who had straggled from 
their commands, and some who had fallen behind on account 
of sickness, had been murdered by bushwhackers, and some 
of the secret service men were set at work to ferret out the 
guilty parties. Some had already paid the penalties of their 
crimes, but one named Salor was still at large and was at length 
located deep in the hilly country twenty-five or more miles 
east of the railroad. Leaving camp at nightfall, accompanied 
by a guide, twenty men of the scouts were in his neighborhood 
before daybreak; and at sunrise, in single file, and leading 
their horses, were climbing the rough path which led to his 
hiding-place — a log hut in a small clearing, out of sight of any 
other sign of civilization. As we mounted, a dog gave the 
alarm, and the bushwacker broke out of the house and started 
for the timber, only to be overtaken before he could reach 
it. Some clothing and blankets which had once belonged 
to Union soldiers were found in the cabin, which was one of 
the most squalid buildings I had ever seen, to be inhabited 
by human beings. In it as inmates were four females, one 
of whom identified one of our party, and at once proceeded 
to give him a "tongue-lashing" he has not yet forgotten. 
The prisoner was still in confinement when we left Gallatin, 
several months later. 

During one of our incursions into Macon county, and not 
far from La Fayette, its county seat, we learned of the presence 
at his home of a Captain Haley, engaged in recruiting for the 



*3 



rebel army. "But," said the informant, "you won't get him. 
He keeps a man at work in the field between his house and 
the road, and a saddled horse in the stable, and can see you 
coming for half a mile; and back of the house is a branch 
where he can hide." 

He drew a rough map in the dust of the road, and by it 
we saw that by leaving the highway a mile from Haley's 
house, and keeping behind a ridge parallel to the road, we 
could get within rushing distance before the alarm could be 
given. Reaching the proper point back of the ridge, the 
command was halted, and a reconnoissance made on foot. 
That completed, a dozen men were selected, two to secure 
the plowman, and prevent his giving an alarm; others to 
go to the stable, and the branch mentioned, and four to the 
house. Having waited till the plowman had reached the end 
of his furrows at the highway, the rush was ordered. Four 
horses went over the low wall surrounding the yard, and in 
less time than it takes to tell of it, four men were inside the 
house. The room I entered was empty, but from across 
the hall I heard the command "Halt! Hands up!" followed 
by a woman's scream, and on entering saw a tableau. 

Near the doorway Corporal Duffy stood, his revolver cover- 
ing a man in the centre of the room, whose hands were extended 
above his head; in front of him, and facing the corporal, 
a slight, pale-faced woman — the wife of the Confederate officer 
— endeavoring to shield her husband, and exclaiming over 
and over, "My husband is no bushwacker!" His horse, 
saddled and bridled, was found in the stable, and when that 
was reported he said, "If I had had only one minute's warning, 
you would not have found me." He was sent to Johnson's 
Island, returned at the close of the war, and in 1897 was living 
in his old home. 



The citizens of Hartsville, with a single exception, were 
strongly in favor of the Confederacy, and on almost every 
visit made by the scouts, some capture or captures were made. 
On one occasion, just at dusk of evening, we had concluded 
a fruitless search for some parties said to be concealed in a 
house at the outskirts of town, when a man was seen riding 
slowly through a lane leading from the pike to some fields 
not far away. Some one asked where he was going, when 
one of the leading files, who was in his saddle, leaned over 
far enough to bring the head of the suspect above the horizon. 
"It's a johnny; he's wearing a hat!" and the next instant the 
chase began. Mud in the lane was fetlock deep; but through 
it went pursued and pursuer, at top speed. He was poorly 
mounted, and at his heels were some of the best racing blood 
of the south; and by the time he had crossed a field about 
two hundred yards in width, he was overtaken, and ordered 
to surrender. He was found to be Captain McConnell, a 
resident of the place, on his way home on leave from McMinn- 
ville, and was of course very much chagrined over his capture. 
He was paroled for the night and sent back to Gallatin in the 
morning; taken sick there, his departure for the north was 
delayed for two months, during which time I saw him fre- 
quently and obtained permission for his wife to come in and 
take care of him. From Johnson's Island he escaped the next 
winter, lying on a board on the thin ice, and pulling it along 
by his hands; was recaptured and sent to Fort Warren, from 
whence he was exchanged just in time to rejoin his command 
and surrender with all the rest. In 1885, President Cleveland 
appointed him U. S. Judge for the District of Montana and 
the following year I met him at Helena, had a very cordial 
greeting, and spent a very pleasant afternoon in his company. 
Among those we met at Hartsville was a lady, wife of a 



*5 

staff officer of the rebel general John H. Morgan, a queenly 
looking, finely educated person, who, while never disguising 
her love for the southern cause, never forgot to be polite 
even to those whom she hated most. Her husband had a 
fine library, and after I had called upon her once she loaned 
me books from it, to be exchanged the next time we visited 
the town. On one such occasion, while pursuing some -fugi- 
tives the horse of one of my men fell on the rocky bed of a 
stream ; and when the chase was ended we returned to find 
a dead steed, and that the soldier, with a shattered leg, had 
been carried by her direction to her house, and a doctor, 
one of those arrested not long before, sent for to give him atten- 
tion. As the party was en route farther up the river, we were 
forced to leave him in her care, with the assurance from her 
that he should not be harmed. But we had not been gone 
two hours, when a notorious bushwacker, whom we never 
succeeded in arresting, made his appearance with three or 
four cronies, and demanded that the Yankee be turned over 
to him. The plucky woman met him at the door, and while 
the crippled soldier, rising on his elbow on his improvised 
bed on her parlor floor, waited, pistol in hand, for his appear- 
ance, she explained the situation, and ordered him from the 
porch — enforcing her command with a pistol drawn from the 
folds of her dress when the bandit declined to obey. Fearing 
his return, she had a horse harnessed to her carriage, and 
the injured man placed in it, and accompanied him to the 
pickets at Gallatin but would not enter the Yankee lines. 
But when her husband was captured with his chief at Buffing- 
ton's Island, a letter which told of her kindness gained for 
her access to Secretary Stanton, and from him a letter giving 
her permission to visit her husband at Camp Chase. 

From the rebel lines near Tullahoma, single men and small 



i6 



parties were almost daily finding their way across the Cumber- 
land, smuggling medicines and mails on their return; and 
occasionally organized commands were crossed, to raid on 
General's Crook's line of communication. On one such raid, 
they dispersed a squadron of the 5th (Union) Tennesese 
Cavalry, and drove off two hundred beef cattle which it was 
driving to his camp. This indicated that the enemy had 
some large boat or boats concealed along the left bank of the 
stream, and I was ordered to take all the scouts, and search 
thoroughly the banks of the river and creeks, and destroy 
everv craft which could carry a man. Beginning about six 
miles above the town, we patroled the river thoroughly and 
destroyed over fifty canoes and small flat-boats. A short 
distance (by road) below Hartsville, where the river was five 
miles or more from it, we found that a large number of horses 
had been landed from a flat-boat, as was indicated by the im- 
pression of its bow on the soft bank. A little above, in the 
left bank, was the mouth of a stream, nearly hidden by over- 
hanging trees; and as no boat was in sight, it was supposed 
to be concealed there. Half a mile below, at the foot of a 
high bank, a canoe was to be seen, and from the shelter of 
bushes along the right bank men watched for hours for some 
man to come into view. When a negro appeared he was cov- 
ered by half a dozen rifles and ordered to bring it across, and 
then to paddle it up stream while the command, screened 
from view bv the timber, moved in the same direction. Halt- 
ing it opposite the mouth of the creek, six volunteers — all 
the canoe would carry — were called for. Every man responded. 
Taking the required number from the right of the line, 
the main body was ordered to deploy under cover of the brush 
along the bank, and, with the gunwale of the canoe not more 
than two inches above water, we paddled silently into the 



mouth of the creek. No boat was in sight, but a hundred 
yards further up, behind a sharp bend we found a new flat — 
large enough to carry twenty-five horses and men — with sweeps 
and steering oar; and seated on its bow, with his back to us, 
was a man fishing, his rifle lying behind him. As the canoe 
grated against the larger craft he sprang to his feet, caught 
up the rifle, and, aiming at the foremost soldier, pulled the 
trigger, but there was no report. A motion of the hand pre- 
vented any firing on our part, two blows of an axe loosed 
the boat from its moorings, and while the guard fled up the 
steep bank the oars were manned and we' were backing toward 
the river. As we emerged from the creek a fire from our 
concealed men drove back some rebels who had appeared 
on the bank, and a few minutes later we steefed the flat to 
the right bank, built fires of drift wood on bow and stern, cut 
a hole midway of the bottom, and pushed it into the current. 

Wilson county, lying along the left bank of the Cumberland, 
above Nashville, was not in the direct line of the Federal 
advance, and was a comparatively secure hiding-place for 
men passing both ways. 

With a view of disturbing the hidden rebels, and ascertain- 
ing if enough forage could be found to justify a crossing with 
the train, General Paine ordered a reconnoissance by all the 
mounted men of three regiments — crossing at a ferry three 
miles from Gallatin, where a section of artillery and company 
of the 79th Ohio Infantry were posted to cover a retreat, 
if one was found necessary. As guide we had a negro who 
had lived in the country, and who, though well paid for his 
services, was — to give appearance of involuntary action on 
his part — tied to his saddle, and had his horse led by a soldier. 
We crossed as soon as possible after nightfall, and when at 
dawn the force reunited at a given point, we had about a 



i8 



score of prisoners and more than twice as many horses and 
mules. At one house we found some horses in the stable, 
which, by passing a hand over their backs in the darkness 
we discovered had worn saddles the previous day; and a 
search of the house disclosed two men in bed — so soundly 
asleep that they were only awakened by being rudely shaken 
by their captors. From some of the negroes we learned of the 
presence of a rebel officer at a house a mile away and went 
after him. But dogs gave the alarm before we could surround 
the house; and he left through a rear window, leaving part 
of his clothing, a fine pair of English-made pistols, and a watch, 
in the hands of his would-be captors. 

There we learned that a dance had been given the previous 
evening at another house in the vicinity, at which several 
Confederates had been guests. Day was breaking as we 
approached it through a wood, and a portion of the force had 
been dismounted, and was deploying to surround the building 
when again a dog gave the alarm. From his blankets, spread 
on the floor of a porch where with six or eight companions 
he had been sleeping, a man sprang up, and seeing the closing- 
in line, shouted "Yanks!" and, "accoutred as he was" in 
drawers and socks, ran for the cornfield a few hundred yards 
away. As he fled down a lane, his long hair streaming in 
the wind, a mounted man took up the chase. At a square 
change of direction in the lane, the fugitive leaped a fence 
of moderate height, alighting in a dense thicket of blackberry 
bushes; but the horse refused, and the rider was so convulsed 
with laughter that he failed to fire. 

With orders to allow but half their squads to eat at a time, 
the command was divided and sent to different houses in the 
immediate vicinity to feed and water horses and get breakfast. 
Perhaps half an hour had passed, when sharp and approaching 



*9 

tiring from the squad nearest the river announced a running 
fight; and by the time the waiting men could mount, four 
gray-coated ones were seen advancing at a gallop, firing on 
their pursuers. Caught between two fires they opened a 
gate leading into a piece of woods, but were all run down 
and captured. 

Later in the day, a man with a splendid mount was captured 
at a shop where he was having his horse shod. The nails 
had not been "clinched," and pulling off a shoe, his horse 
fell, throwing him heavily on the hard pike. By nightfall 
our presence was known to all the country, and captures of 
men or animals were few; but forty-four hours after we left 
the ferry, we returned to it without having lost a man, and 
with twenty-seven prisoners and about seventy-five good 
horses and mules. 

While pretending to act in the interest of the Confederacy, 
most of the guerrillas had no conscientious scruples against 
appropriating anything which struck their fancy. If taken 
from a Union man, he had reason for thankfulness that his 
life was spared; if a disloyal man lost his best horse, he ought 
to surrender it gracefully as a contribution to the good cause. 
They did not hesitate to murder if they had any personal 
grudge to gratify, or thought the victim had any money con- 
cealed, and some of their deeds were barbarous in the extreme. 
One man, eighty years old, was forced out of his bed, made 
to kneel in the road in front of his house, and shot, while his 
aged wife prayed in vain for his life. The name of the mur- 
derer was known, and was one of more than a score of whom 
the commander said — "I don't want to see those men," 
and it was some satisfaction to us, when we knew that a party 
had captured him; and that as far as one life could do it, 
he had paid the penalty of his crimes, in sight of the spot 



20 



where the old wife had pleaded in vain for the life of her hus- 
band. 

Some of the wretches seemed to bear charmed lives. Jim 
Beasley, Ellis Harper, and one named Ramsey were sought 
for in vain, though we were at times so close upon them that 
the places where they had lain were actually warm to the 
touch. 

In the Maxwell House in Nashville, in April, 1897, I met 
a man named Taylor, formerly member of Congress from 
Memphis, and in the course of conversation which ensued, 
events of war times were touched upon, and to my surprise 
I was told that Ellis Harper was then in the hotel, and in 
a moment I was facing the erstwhile bushwacker. 

When told who I was, he extended a hand, and expressed 
pleasure at our meeting. I could not avoid a feeling of re- 
pulsion, and actually involuntarily glanced at my hand to 
see if there was blood on it, as he loosed his hold. He spoke 
freelv of war times, told how near the scouts had been to 
capturing him on different occasions, adding "I reckon you 
'uns would 'a killed me right thar," and I cheerfully assured 
him that his suppositions were correct. He told in the most 
matter-of-fact way that he "jist had ter kill" such or such 
an one — that he "was thar, but he didn't kill" such-and- 
such an one, as he had been charged with doing. And yet, 
this murderer, known to be such, was at the time I was hearing 
his tales of crime and blood, a sheriff, appointed as such by 
the Governor of the State, and in the city on official busine ss i 

In one of our visits to Macon county we learned of the where- 
abouts of one Jack Gross, who was known to have been engaged 
in attacks on railroad trains near Franklin, Kentucky — 
and determined to pay him a visit. His house stood only 
a few vards from a hillside, very steep, and which dropped 



21 



a hundred feet or more to a thickly wooded "bottom." Owing 
to a bend in the road we could not see the ground about the 
house, and charged it without a previous reconnoissance'. 
As we approached it he fled by the rear door, and though 
slightly wounded, ran like a deer for the shelter of the bush 
and escaped — for the time. In searching the house we found 
a lot of goods secreted under the floor, and with them a keg 
of whiskey. The men were allowed to take as much of it 
as they cared for, and the remainder was ordered poured out. 
At this, a woman, who was found at the house, protested 
against the waste, and with the thought that it might loosen her 
tongue, was allowed to save some. It did not loosen her 
tongue, but it did loosen her feet, and the highland fling in 
which she indulged threw the original of that dance far into 
the shade. 

Compared with the movements of large armies, and great 
battles of the war, these matters seem to be, and are, small. 
But they were minor parts in the same great drama, and 
fully as necessary as are some of the small parts which make 
up the arms of precision of to-day. They required hardihood, 
endurance, and courage equal to any displayed on greater 
fields, and after a little weeding out at first, the men left were 
the peers of any who fought for the Union ; and I do not believe 
that any other body of men in the great struggle, equal in 
numbers and in the same length of time, could show as great 
results of their labors— for in about five months they turned 
over more than six times their number of prisoners, and nearly 
eight hundred horses and mules, for. the Government's use. 
During those months but two instances of real plundering 
on the part of persons belonging to the detachment came 
to my notice. In the one case the offender not only was 
returned to his company, but was, by order of the colonel, 



22 
marched in front of the line at dress parade wearing a placard 
on his back, which described his offence. The other culprit 
was a lieutenant who in some manner obtained command of 
the scouts, but held it for only one trip, on which he took 
possession of two watches found while searching for mail, which 
articles he was peremptorily ordered to return when com- 
plaint was made. 

Fortunately we had no men killed. Our attacks were 
always surprises, and the tactics were those favored by the 
rebel General Forrest — "git thar fust, with the mostest men." 
Narrow escapes were not lacking to add to the zest of pursuit. 
On one occasion when Captain Lawson's company of the 
i ith Kentucky Cavalry was acting with the scouts in Macon 
county, a desperado who probably knew that a halter was 
waiting for him, was thrown from his wounded horse, and 
the captain, first to reach him, instead of ordering "hands 
up" ordered him to surrender his arms. Drawing a revolver 
from the holster on his belt, the bandit cocked it at the same 
time, and, without raising it to aim, fired as he brought the 
weapon to the front. Half a dozen shots struck him instantly, 
and he died before he could fire a second time. On being 
asked if he were hurt the captain opened his coat and under- 
clothing, exposing a red welt across his chest, made by the 
bullet and coollv remarked, "The scoundrel meant to injure 
me!" 

The impressment of horses and mules was often attended 
with exciting scenes, and the possession of the animals even 
after branding was often disputed. On one raid after "Jim" 
Beasley, at his mother's home on the Carthage pike, we found 
a horse with wet river mud on his fetlocks grazing in the yard, 
having just been used by a brother of the bushwacker when 
he went to the river, a mile distant, to ferry him and three 



23 



other men across. In a drawer in one of the rooms we found 
a photograph of the brother [in rebel uniform, and consequently 
took him with us, and also the horse he had ridden, and a 
fine stallion we found in a stable. As he was a nuisance to 
us, he was turned over to the quartermaster, and purchased 
by General Ward, who rode him till the war closed, and took 
him to his home in Kentucky. 

By some means the Beasleys found where he was and sued 
for his recovery, and after perjury enough had been committed 
to have sunk a ship — if oaths had any avoidupois — and the 
general had spent nearly $3,000 defending the suit, they won, 
and secured the horse. The echoes of the Wilson county 
raid did not die away for years (they may still be rumbling 
in the Court of Claims), and ten years later, while serving 
in Indian Territory, I was asked to explain by what authority 
and for what purpose, I, on such-and-such day of May, 1863, 
had taken from - - one roan mare, etc, etc. 

My reply was that we had taken several hundreds of horses 
of all colors and both sexes, and could not recollect many 
individual animals- -but that all were used for Government 
and if at the date mentioned he was called upon to part from 
only one roan mare, he was a fortunate man. 

After we had been mounted for a month or six weeks, and 
found that one horse could not do the work required of each 
man and had outwitted the quartermaster, we reserved several 
of the best of those taken, and had half-a-dozen colored men 
about the stables to care for the surplus ones. I kept three, 
one of them a blooded mare — valued by her owner at $1,000 — 
and on one raid into Kentucky, which lasted five days, her 
saddle was not removed except to readjust the blanket, nor 
was my overcoat strapped to the saddle till we had reached 
camp on our return. When, in June, the brigade was ordered 



24 

to the front, and the scouts were dismounted, we turned in 
more than fifty horses from my regiment, every one "fit to 
run for a man's life." 

We had not been of much expense to the Government. 
Rations — other than coffee, sugar, and salt — were seldom 
carried, and we never went hungry; neither did our animals. 
When supplied freely we gave freely in return, and I know 
of more than one occasion when the only coffee, or "short 
sweetnin," a family had tasted for months, came out of the 
scouts' saddle-pockets, and "Lincoln money" changed hands 
on several occasions when the meal had been better than usual. 






mm 

015 9103o^^ 



X 



